Sony DCR-HC90 - Anyone got one?

After a crash course in camcorder features and qualities while staying reasonably within budget (£500 or less originally), I'm really tempted by the Sony HC90 even though it's £545. It is only 1 CCD but it's a 1/3inch one rather than a 1/6 one and the few clips I've seen online look pretty good. It's also immensely compact which appeals.

The only bad thing I can really hear people saying about it is the autofocus can be slow in lowish light but I thought that was pretty much to be expected. And that it doesn't have lots of manual features which doesn't bother me as I'll have no idea how to use them; perhaps on camcorder number 2 in a few years!

The Panasonic 150/250 and the Canon MX45 (Optura 60) are closer to the £700 so the HC90 seems a more reasonable price for the quality.

Anyone got the HC90 to give me some last minute opinions? Or, if in the UK, any bargain retailers? I'm already considering a wander along Tottenham Court Road, cash in pocket on Saturday

Blue Velvet said:

Nothing suitable through work?

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No which is frustrating. We only sell the model below this or the model above it which is £300 dearer. I started off at the model below (HC42) but from my reading of reviews etc, the HC90 seems to be worth the extra £100 RRP (bigger CCD - physically and pixelly, no nasty docking station, better battery) - course for me it's £145 extra since I won't get my discount. I'm talking to the buyers to see if they can order me one but it would then end up being at full retail rather than the discounts available in TCR/online.

Blue Velvet said:

I've never got a bargain from Tottenham Court Road. Rip-off merchants most of them... what about trying an online retail price comparator like Kelkoo or some of the others?

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Been there and got the best price online - via Amazon surprisingly - so will go to TCR armed with that. If they don't match it, I'll buy it from there.

I have had a good deal from them before. Haggled one guy down to £30 below internet price on a digital camera a few years ago - and refused expensive accessories. Trick is to know exactly what you can get online (including all the the batteries/tapes/cables) so that when they try bundling stuff together you know what you're looking at. So long as you pay on a credit card, you'll still covered.

But yes, their initial offer (to a woman especially) is always a rip-off price. I went on a preliminary jaunt to check out some models and they started off quoting silly prices but went quickly down to sensible ones when I showed I did have knowledge of the market.